About Us

Lakewest Venture Partners is an affiliate of Lakewest, Inc., a real estate and private equity company located in Chicago. It is led by Buzz Ruttenberg, David Mann and Jonathan McCulloch and was formed in 2013 to pursue seed and early stage investment opportunities primarily in Chicago. In its first several years, Lakewest's investments and participation in companies ranged from passive interest at $50,000-$100,000 to lead seed stage investments in excess of $1,000,000 with board involvement. Since partnering with Dundee Venture Capital, Lakewest and Dundee now look to make lead seed stage investments from $250,000-$750,000 in high-growth, early-stage technology companies. We will invest across industries in founding teams we believe in, but shy away from life sciences and hardware. We like to invest in what we know. For that reason, most of our investments are in e-commerce, B2B SaaS, real estate related enterprises, or consumer networks.

Our founders' long history of business, civic work and entrepreneurship in Chicago allows us to provide the entrepreneurs we support with connections to an extensive network. Our own entrepreneurial roots in real estate and private equity also gives us the ability to provide these entrepreneurs with strategic mentorship, insights and views from a unique perspective.

David W. "Buzz" Ruttenberg

David W. “Buzz” Ruttenberg is the President and Managing Broker of Lakewest, Inc., Founder of Belgravia Group, Ltd. and a Principal in the law firm of Ruttenberg, Gilmartin & Reis LLC. He completed his undergraduate course work at Cornell University and received a J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law. He also pursued post-graduate studies in economics at London University, School of Economics.

For more than 40 years, Mr. Ruttenberg has been actively involved in the development of residential, retail and commercial properties, principally located in the core communities of Chicago. The total value of all developments, past and present, exceeds one billion dollars. His recent honors include the Hall of Fame Award from the Chicago Association of Realtors, the Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from Northwestern University School of Law Small Business Opportunity Center, the Key Legend Award from the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago, the Outstanding Achievement in Real Estate from The Realtors Commercial Alliance of the National Association of Realtors, Men of the Year Award from the Men’s Book Magazine, and the Commercial Forum Impact Award from the Chicago Association of Realtors.

Mr. Ruttenberg is an active or former member of numerous Chicago area civic and charitable organizations. These activities include his role as a Lifetime Trustee of the Francis W. Parker School, past trustee of the Erikson Institute, the Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital, the Marwen Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Additionally, he currently serves on the board of directors of Friends of the Parks, president’s board of UCAN, the advisory board of The Conservation Center, and he is a member of Home Builders Association and the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. He was recently a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of Northwestern University School of Law. He was the past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chicago’s SSA #23 (a Special Service Area for North Clark Street).

David E. Mann

David E. Mann brings over 15 years of varied investment, operations and legal experience to his role as Lakewest Venture Partners Principal. A former corporate attorney, his investment and operational experience includes day-to-day company operations and strategic planning efforts for a parking services management company, operations management at an apparel manufacturing company and establishment and continuing oversight of ongoing venture capital, alternative investment and private equity investment strategies. Mr. Mann and Lakewest Venture Partner Jonathan McCulloch seek out new venture investments, meet with an extensive network of start-up entrepreneurs and other participants in the start-up and venture capital space, and perform the due diligence for each Lakewest Venture Partners investment. Mr. Mann graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1997 with an AB degree in Government, and went on to earn his JD degree from the Northwestern University School of Law in 2002.

Jonathan W. McCulloch

Jonathan W. McCulloch is a Senior Vice President at Belgravia Group, Ltd., a leading Chicago real estate development firm, as well as Prinicipal for Lakewest, Inc. Mr. McCulloch joined Lakewest/Belgravia in 2004 and currently manages Belgravia’s residential developments, performs underwriting analysis for new company endeavors, and oversees the company’s equity raises. For Lakewest, he has led the execution of real estate acquisitions totaling over $250MM as well as the creation and management of private equity and venture capital investments. Mr. McCulloch sits on the board of directors of Accel Entertainment, the market-share leader of video gaming terminals in the Illinois video gaming market. He and Lakewest Venture Partner David Mann seek out new venture investments, meet with an extensive network of start-up entrepreneurs and other participants in the start-up and venture capital space, and perform the due diligence for each Lakewest Venture Partners investment. Mr. McCulloch received a B.S. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

OUR CRITERIA

While we do not limit our investment objectives to a specific industry, we focus on a few key areas in our decision making:

Pick a jockey, not a horse. While a business plan or idea is critical, the quality of the entrepreneur(s) behind a business is paramount to us in our selection process.

Proof of concept. We seek businesses that have succeeded in earning early revenue and customers. They are typically “post proof of concept.” We look for a business where a limited set of customers or user engagement has been achieved and the business is fundraising primarily to scale its efforts.

Disruptive ideas. We look for ideas and companies seeking to change the status quo. A company that can do so will have the ability to scale its business within a self-created niche and setup immediate barriers to entry.

Lakewest, Inc. is an affiliate of Belgravia Group, Ltd., a leading Chicago residential development firm. Since 1947, Belgravia Group and its associated companies have been involved in the development of numerous residential properties, Chicagoland retail centers, Lincoln Park mixed-use properties and River North office buildings. Notable projects include 600 N. Lakeshore Drive, 530 N. Lakeshore Drive, and Renelle. Belgravia Group is a vertically integrated company with divisions for real estate sales and marketing, general brokerage, distressed asset purchases and a full range of real estate legal services.